Japanese Sit-down Comedy to be staged in Manila, Cebu, and Davao Newsletter

Organized by All Nippon Airways (ANA) and the Japan Foundation, Manila in cooperation with the Consular Office of Japan in Davao, we bring you Rakugo in English, a Japanese Sit-down Comedy with special Japanese guest artists to enthrall Philippine audiences. Rakugo is a Japanese comic storytelling art that has been used as entertainment for over 400 years and is still widely popular today. Currently they are performed at "yoses", specialized theatres for Rakugo. With their performance, the artist speaks to the imagination, and single-handedly creates the hilarious side of tradition of Japan.

Organized by All Nippon Airways (ANA) and the Japan Foundation, Manila in cooperation with the Consular Office of Japan in Davao, we bring you Rakugo in English, a Japanese Sit-down Comedy with special Japanese guest artists to enthrall Philippine audiences. Rakugo is a Japanese comic storytelling art that has been used as entertainment for over 400 years and is still widely popular today. Currently they are performed at "yoses", specialized theatres for Rakugo. With their performance, the artist speaks to the imagination, and single-handedly creates the hilarious side of tradition of Japan.

Japanese Sit-down Comedy to be staged in Manila, Cebu, and Davao

Organized by All Nippon Airways (ANA) and the Japan Foundation, Manila in cooperation with the Consular Office of Japan in Davao, we bring you Rakugo in English, a Japanese Sit-down Comedy with special Japanese guest artists to enthrall Philippine audiences. Rakugo is a Japanese comic storytelling art that has been used as entertainment for over 400 years and is still widely popular today. Currently they are performed at "yoses", specialized theatres for Rakugo. With their performance, the artist speaks to the imagination, and single-handedly creates the hilarious side of tradition of Japan.

Enjoy Rakugo with Kaishi Katsura, the world's top performer of English Rakugo, along with Asakichi Katsura. Meanwhile, as a colorful counterpoint to all-talk comedy, Utsumi Eika lends her versatile voice to comic song and story with shamisen music. Finally, Lucky Mai will amaze audiences with daikagura traditional clowning, a vintage street art with elements of acrobatics, juggling, magic, dance, and comedy.

Admission is FREE. Rakugo in English will be staged on the following venues nationwide on the dates below:

For more information on the event, please contact the Japan Foundation, Manila (JFM) at telephone numbers 811-6154 to 58 or email@jfmo.org.ph. Visit www.jfmo.org.ph and www.facebook.com/jfmanila for updates.

Please use the official hashtag #RAKUGO2017 and #JFmanila when posting about Rakugo in English: Japanese Sit-down Comedy

Organized by All Nippon Airways (ANA) and the Japan Foundation, Manila in cooperation with the Consular Office of Japan in Davao, we bring you Rakugo in English, a Japanese Sit-down Comedy with special Japanese guest artists to enthrall Philippine audiences. Rakugo is a Japanese comic storytelling art that has been used as entertainment for over 400 years and is still widely popular today. Currently they are performed at "yoses", specialized theatres for Rakugo. With their performance, the artist speaks to the imagination, and single-handedly creates the hilarious side of tradition of Japan.

Enjoy Rakugo with Kaishi Katsura, the world's top performer of English Rakugo, along with Asakichi Katsura. Meanwhile, as a colorful counterpoint to all-talk comedy, Utsumi Eika lends her versatile voice to comic song and story with shamisen music. Finally, Lucky Mai will amaze audiences with daikagura traditional clowning, a vintage street art with elements of acrobatics, juggling, magic, dance, and comedy.

Admission is FREE. Rakugo in English will be staged on the following venues nationwide on the dates below:

For more information on the event, please contact the Japan Foundation, Manila (JFM) at telephone numbers 811-6154 to 58 or email@jfmo.org.ph. Visit www.jfmo.org.ph and www.facebook.com/jfmanila for updates.

Please use the official hashtag #RAKUGO2017 and #JFmanila when posting about Rakugo in English: Japanese Sit-down Comedy

Cine Europa 19 Movie in Cebu

GERARDO OLIVARES (Drama Director) is the writer-director of ENTRE LOBOS (AMONG WOLVES), an outstanding commercial and critical success in Spain. Olivares brings to the film a powerful and authentic voice.

OTMAR PENKER (Wildlife Director) and GERALD SALMINA (Wildlife Producer) are two of the world’s most acclaimed directors and cinematographers in the realm of wildlife and extreme sports films. BROTHERS OF THE WIND represents their greatest undertaking to date and will stand as a testament to their dedication.

SYNOPSIS

The way of the eagle is to raise two chicks. The stronger is destined always to throw the weaker from the nest. Man also has his ways, often to hurt those closest to him. Lukas suffers at the hands of a father who has withdrawn since the loss of his wife. Killed whilst rescuing the infant Lukas, the boy now carries the burden of her death. Our eagle’s story begins in the nest. The first-born chick pushes his weaker brother to a certain death on the forest floor. But fate intervenes and the chick is found by Lukas. Naming him Abel, Lukas cares for the creature in secret, finding a love and companionship denied to him at home. But when the day comes to release Abel back into the wild, will Lukas find his own release into a new life?

BROTHERS OF THE WIND is a powerful tale of hope and discovery.

Genre: Adventure, Drama, Family

************************************

Dagen zonder lief(With Friends Like These...)

Belgium

Director: Felix van Groeningen

Cast: Koen De Graeve, Wine Dierickx, Pieter Genard

SYNOPSIS

When Black Kelly gets back from New York, she discovers that more has changed than just her hair colour while she's been away. Frederic found himself a girlfriend and plans to move. Kurt and Blonde Kelly live together with their one-year-old child. And Patrick's gone. Reunited with the old gang, Black Kelly realises that life went on during her absence and that things will never be the same...

Atanas, a Bulgarian computer engineer, develops a formula to find the perfect wife. He uses other engineers as guinea pigs and sends them out to test his theories in the real world.

************************************

Normal: the Düsseldorf RipperCzech Republic

Director: Julius Sevcik

Cast: Pavel Gajdos, Milan Knazko and Dagmar Havlova (wife of the former president Vaclav Havel)

SYNOPSIS

Between February 1929 and October 1931 Peter Kuerten has brutally murdered eight people and attacked many others. He killed men, women, children and animals, anything that crossed his path. He spread the same panic Jack the Ripper once did in London. Eventually this brutal sadist voluntarily gave himself up to the police.

A young ambitious lawyer Justus Wehner is assigned to defend the killer. Wehner is certain that Kuerten suffers from a severe mental disorder and decides to prove Peter Kuerten is insane. Wehner starts to study the killer´s mind, but the further he sinks into Kuerten‘s motivation and psyche, he gains less control over the case. Wehner also meets Kurten‘s wife Marie, a lady with a dark past, who´s role in the case is more than mysterious. Kuerten and Marie start to exploit Wehner‘s mind and soul.

Evil tendencies and despair slowly start to overcome Wehner. He burns the bridges of his old life, almost kills one of his witnesses and finally forces Marie into suicide. In the conclusion of the trial, Kuerten is declared “Normal”. Wehner looses the case as well as his innocence, beliefs and carrier. Peter Kurten is now to become the new Messiah. He will be a messiah of terror who will lead the people into a new age of fascism where insanity will become normal for everyone.

Genre: Crime, Drama & Thriller

************************************A Second Chance

Denmark

Director: Susanne Bier

Cast: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Ulrich Thomsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas

SYNOPSIS

Detectives and best friends Andreas and Simon are leading vastly different lives. Andreas has settled down with his wife and son while Simon, recently divorced, spends most of his waking hours getting drunk. But all that changes when the two of them are called out to a domestic dispute between a junkie couple. It all looks very routine – until Andreas finds the couple’s infant son, crying in a closet. The usually collected policeman is shaken to his core. As Andreas slowly loses his grip on justice, it suddenly becomes up to the unruly Simon to restore the balance between right and wrong.

Summertime is a warm-hearted, touching and funny movie about growing up, friendship and, despite all the hardships, "the best summer ever".

25-year-old Iiris and Karoliina are best of friends. Iiris has been travelling and doing odd jobs abroad for some years now, but is coming back home for the summer as Karoliina has gotten them jobs as waitresses in Hanko, the best summer city in Finland. The plan is to spend one more care-free summer together enjoying life. When the girls make friends with their slightly odd workmate Eeva and move into her aunt’s villa, the makings of a perfect summer seem to be in order.

But there are clouds over total freedom and ease. Iiris has crisis in growing up, Karoliina is tempted to do something that is morally suspicious and Eeva is once again struggling to get into university.

As the summer goes on, all three girls have to accept hard facts about themselves and their lives - and admitting these to the others is not easy. Luckily the summer is hot, the girls are not quite thirty yet and friends stand by each other all the way to the end.

Genre: Drama-comedy

************************************

A 14 ans (Being 14)

France

Director: Hélène Zimmer

Cast/Actors: Najaa Bensaid, Athalia Routier, Galatéa Bellugi,

SYNOPSIS

The new school year has begun. Sarah, Jade and Louise are back together for their final year in high school. Between euphoria, rivalties, rebellion and seductions, they deal with the torments of adolescence in order to find their place.

************************************

Pater

France

Director: Alain Cavalier

Cast/Actors: Vincent Lindon, Alain Cavalier, Bernard Bureau

SYNOPSIS

During a year, they would meet and film each other. The filmmaker and the actor, the President and his Prime Minister, Alain Cavalier and Vincent London.

In Pater, you will see them in real life and in the fiction that they invited together.

The aristocratic sisters Charlotte and Caroline both fall in love with the controversial young writer and hothead Friedrich Schiller. Defying the conventions of their time, the sisters decide to share their love with Schiller. What begins playfully, almost as a game among the three of them, soon turns serious as it leads to the end of a pact...

BELOVED SISTERS received the Best Cinematography Award at this year's Bavarian Film Awards and will represent Germany as the official submission for the 87th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film

SYNOPSIS (long)

Germany in the late 18th century. Two beautiful, aristocratic sisters meet a young man who is infatuated by both of them: by Caroline, bold, exuberant, unhappily married; and Charlotte, shy, rational, intense. The young man is none other than the writer, playwright, philosopher and hothead Friedrich Schiller, whose career has just begun. Both sisters long for love, but only one, Charlotte, is free. Neither noble nor wealthy, Schiller is no match for Charlotte, whose mother wants her to make a “good” marriage. Yet in the wake of the social and political upheavals rocking France on the eve of the Revolution, new forms of cohabitation emerge. One of them is the ménage à trois – which is what Caroline urges them to try. Schiller is to marry Charlotte, but they will never be far from Caroline. Tension mounts between the sisters, however, who have always loved each other dearly and shared all their secrets and desires. Though Schiller delicately tends to the needs and wishes of his two mistresses, the sisters’ own pact seems increasingly like an elusive dream...

In this aesthetic tour-de-force, one of Germany’s foremost “auteurs,” Dominik Graf (“Dreileben”, “A Map of the Heart”), examines a passionate love triangle that may have been one of Schiller’s most closely guarded secrets. The actors Hannah Herzsprung (“Four Minutes”), Henriette Confurius and Florian Stetter (“Sophie Scholl”) demonstrate the full range of their artistry, and, through their eloquence and expressiveness, raise this gorgeously shot film to the level of a timeless study of love.

Director’s biography:

Dominik Graf, born in 1952, is the son of actor Robert Graf. He began studying German Philology and Musicology at the University of Munich in 1972. In 1974, he switched to the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München (HFF Munich). His graduation film DER KOSTBARE GAST (1979) received a Bavarian Film Award. Graf works extensively in television, directs episodes for German prime-time series and has established himself as a specialist for thrillers and action films. Some of his films are also shown in cinemas. He received a German Film Award as Best Director for the thriller THE CAT. Afterwards, Graf mainly worked in television. There he continually switched between quite controversial genre works, such as SPERLING UND DER BRENNENDE ARM, melodramas like BITTERE UNSCHULD and poetic works such as FRIENDS OF FRIENDS. Graf’s television series IN FACE OF THE CRIME, about the Berlin Russian Mafia, gained widespread attention. The series received a number of awards, including a German Television Award for Best Miniseries, the Grimme Award in the Fiction category and the Best Director Award at the 2011 Bavarian TV Awards. Dominik Graf’s first feature film in eight years, BELOVED SISTERS, premiered at the 2014 Berlinale. Since 2004, he has held the post of Professor of Feature Film Directing at the ifs internationale filmschule köln.

Erik has his own motorbike workshop in a sleepy little town. He may have the telling word ‘scoundrel’ tattooed onto his lower arm but he nonetheless creates an impression of a well-behaved average Joe. His relationship with his girlfriend Julia is going well and her daughter Linda is very fond of her new Dad. But then all of a sudden the mysterious Henry appears and begins following him about like a sinister shadow. The more Erik tries to shake off his diabolical guest the more Henry intrudes into his life. But then when a violent gangster named Keitel enters the fray and threatens not only Erik but Julia and Linda, Erik’s seemingly ideal world begins to run off the rails.

After his prize-winning debut "Schwerkraft", director Maximilian Erlenwein serves up a mystery-cum-thriller that is as absorbing as it is philosophical. When a repressed, hidden past rears its ugly head, the characters find themselves confronted with fundamental conflicts. The leading roles are played by Jürgen Vogel and Moritz Bleibtreu, both of whom make excellent use of their full-on physicality, ensuring a sensual but far from bloodless adventure.

************************************

Anyám és más futóbolondok a családból(MOM AND OTHER LOONIES IN THE FAMILY)

The screenplay is the story of an odd family during the 20th century. Four generations of “crazies” led by the character of Mum who lived 94 years and moved 27 times in her life. Moving was her only way ofconfronting troubles, dangers and conflicts. In reality, it was History that chased her throughout the country and made her go through a terrible century. At the incredible age of 94, Mum tells the story of these events to her daughter, nearly 100 years of often mischievous and heart-warming but also sometimes painful episodes.

Leonardo Rossellini is a young Italian priest from Rome. He is assigned to a parish in Payatas, headed by a courageous Spanish priest. Payatas is one of the poorest areas of Metromanila, Philippines, where all the urban wastes of the metropolis are dumped and processed: a place where every day children are exposed to violence and dangerous diseases. Leonardo's mission is to counsel battered women and teach poor children English and catechism. But soon Leonardo's peace of mind is distraught by the encounter of Merlinda, a young and charming woman he used to love when he was still a seminarian. Merlinda is now married to Franco, and has a 6 year old son. But Franco is a violent husband also involved in illegal activities, and her son Alejandro is now missing. Merlinda asks for Leonardo's help. The latter decides to do his best to solve her problems. The reason? Leonardo still has feelings for Merlinda. But Franco doesn't like the Italian priest to mess with his family's life and Carlos, the Spanish head priest is worried about it: he knows how dangerous Franco is. But Leonardo is even more determined when Merlinda reveals to him that Alejandro is not Franco's son: he is their son. Leonardo becomes an 'action priest': he protects Merlinda from Franco's violence and is able to find and rescue his son, who was in the hand of a syndicate of which Franco is a member. But now Franco plans to kill the Italian priest.

Like in many other Monicelli movies, the main theme of Amici miei is friendship, seen from a rather bitter point of view. It tells the story of four middle-aged friends in Florence who organize together idle pranks (called zingarate, "gypsy shenanigans") in a continuous attempt to prolong childhood during their adult life.

For four disillusioned men there is more at stake than merely finishing the Rotterdam marathon.

Gerard, Leo, Kees and Nico are four best friends who work together in Gerard's garage. But the business isn't going all that well, so the four friends come up with the brilliant idea of finding a sponsor who will pay them to run the Rotterdam marathon. In this way they can save the garage from bankruptcy. For the four friends however, there is a lot more at stake…

The Liverpool Goalie is a warm comedy, in which both girls and boys play football, worship their idols, and are frustrated by complicated friendships, young love, anxious mothers and overambitious football coaches. At the heart of the events, we find twelve-year-old Jo. Jo tries to avoid both potential girfriends, mothers and football coaches, as he is hunting desperately for a rare football card which he believes will solve all his problems. Jo has a smart head, but a weak body. Even so, he gets by relatively well - until Mari throws him a glance, and he acquires the title "The Liverpool Goalie".

IN 1947, the world is gripped with excitement as the young Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl embarks on an astonishing expedition - a journey of 4,300 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean on the Kon-Tiki raft. From his days living in the Marquesas with his wife Liv, Thor suspected that the South Sea Islands had been settled by ancient South Americans from thousands of miles to the east. Despite his inability to swim and fear of water, Thor decides to prove his theory by sailing the legendary voyage himself.

After replicating the design of an ancient raft in balsa wood, Thor and five fellow adventurers set sail from Peru. Their only modern equipment is a radio, and they take a parrot along for company. A natural leader, Thor uses the stars and the oceans current to navigate the raft. After three dangerous months on the open sea, encountering raging storms, sharks, and all the dangers the ocean can muster, the exhausted crew sights Polynesia and makes a triumphant landing.

Having sacrificed everything for his mission, even his marriage, the success of the Kon-Tiki expedition proves to be bittersweet for Thor.

************************************

Carte Blanche

Poland

Director: Jacek Lusiński

SYNOPSIS

Inspired by an incredible true story "Carte Blanche" is ailmeel-good movie about a high school history teacher who – fearing he might lose his job and dignity - decides to hide the fact that he’s losing his sight.

Kacper, a beloved history teacher, begins to lose his sight. The medical diagnosis leaves little hope; due to a genetic disorder, chances are high that he’s facing permanent blindness. Initially heartbroken, he attempts to hide his health problems from his bosses. His only desire is to keep his dream job and to help his students prepare to the final exams. The only person knowing about Kacper's problem is his best friend Wiktor. Fighting his dreary fate, Kacper becomes very close with his co-worker Ewa, and at the same time he tries to help a rebel student Klara, who hides a secret of her own.

What makes this story so universal and appealing is that it’s not merely about this particular’s man struggle with a disease. It’s about every man whose world begins to fall apart and who is faced with a choice to make: to fight or to give in and remain defeated. How much strength does one need to come from their knees and keep on going? Are we capable of writing our life over again, from scratch?

Instead of staying home and learn for the final exam, three fresh high-school graduates decide to go to the seaside and complete their teenage in a rebellious style! Yasmine, Roxi and Ana are determined to have fun and forget about the responsibilities in the past 2 days before the maturity exam, and that means to break any rule and do whatever they want to do, without considering the consequences. They want freedom, adrenaline and one summer love, and the three young men whom they cling at the seaside seem more than willing to offer them whatever they can imagine.

Genre: Comedy

************************************

Bucuresti NonStop

Romania

Director: Dan Chisu

Cast: Gheorghe Ifrim, Ion Besoiu, Dorina Lazar

SYNOPSIS

Bucharest NonStop presents a regular night of a 24/7 neighbourhood store. Achim, the owner of the store, represents the connection between four stories of ordinary people caught in extraordinary situations. No matter how different they are, the taxi driver and the hooker, the elderly couple, the lovers and the neighbourhood con men have one thing in common: Achim’s nonstop store.

Genre: Drama

************************************

Miguel y William

Spain

Director: Inés París

Cast: Elena Anaya, Juan Luis Galiardo, Will Kemp

SYNOPSIS

Leonor de Vibero, the daughter of a commercial agent living in England and a keen theatergoer has to leave London and return to Castile to marry a rich, widowed duke. Leonor leaves an inconsolable lover, William Shakespeare, in London. He is a promising playwright who enjoys the pleasures of the flesh as much as the applause of the public. When she is in Spain, Leonor meets Miguel de Cervantes, a former soldier and man of letters who has lost confidence in himself and faith in his talent. Shakespeare arrives in Spain to prevent the marriage between his beloved and the duke and so Leonor sees the chance to bring together the talents of the two writers to obtain a unique work.

Genre: Comedy, Drama

************************************

Unga Sophie Bell (Young Sophie Bell)

Sweden

Director: Amanda Adolfsson

Cast: Felice Jankell, Hedda Stiernstedt, Iggy Malmborg

SYNOPSIS

After high school graduation, life is finally going to begin for real. At least that’s how best friends Sophie and Alice feel about the upcoming move to Berlin. But their plans are crushed when Alice disappears in Berlin under unclear conditions. Sophie ends up on a life-changing journey that will bring her a taste of the exuberant parts of life.

The true story of the relationship between renowned writer Alan Bennett and the singular Miss Shepherd, a woman of uncertain origins who ‘temporarily’ parked her van in Bennett’s London driveway and proceeded to live there for 15 years.

GERARDO OLIVARES (Drama Director) is the writer-director of ENTRE LOBOS (AMONG WOLVES), an outstanding commercial and critical success in Spain. Olivares brings to the film a powerful and authentic voice.

OTMAR PENKER (Wildlife Director) and GERALD SALMINA (Wildlife Producer) are two of the world’s most acclaimed directors and cinematographers in the realm of wildlife and extreme sports films. BROTHERS OF THE WIND represents their greatest undertaking to date and will stand as a testament to their dedication.

SYNOPSIS

The way of the eagle is to raise two chicks. The stronger is destined always to throw the weaker from the nest. Man also has his ways, often to hurt those closest to him. Lukas suffers at the hands of a father who has withdrawn since the loss of his wife. Killed whilst rescuing the infant Lukas, the boy now carries the burden of her death. Our eagle’s story begins in the nest. The first-born chick pushes his weaker brother to a certain death on the forest floor. But fate intervenes and the chick is found by Lukas. Naming him Abel, Lukas cares for the creature in secret, finding a love and companionship denied to him at home. But when the day comes to release Abel back into the wild, will Lukas find his own release into a new life?

BROTHERS OF THE WIND is a powerful tale of hope and discovery.

Genre: Adventure, Drama, Family

************************************

Dagen zonder lief(With Friends Like These...)

Belgium

Director: Felix van Groeningen

Cast: Koen De Graeve, Wine Dierickx, Pieter Genard

SYNOPSIS

When Black Kelly gets back from New York, she discovers that more has changed than just her hair colour while she's been away. Frederic found himself a girlfriend and plans to move. Kurt and Blonde Kelly live together with their one-year-old child. And Patrick's gone. Reunited with the old gang, Black Kelly realises that life went on during her absence and that things will never be the same...

Atanas, a Bulgarian computer engineer, develops a formula to find the perfect wife. He uses other engineers as guinea pigs and sends them out to test his theories in the real world.

************************************

Normal: the Düsseldorf RipperCzech Republic

Director: Julius Sevcik

Cast: Pavel Gajdos, Milan Knazko and Dagmar Havlova (wife of the former president Vaclav Havel)

SYNOPSIS

Between February 1929 and October 1931 Peter Kuerten has brutally murdered eight people and attacked many others. He killed men, women, children and animals, anything that crossed his path. He spread the same panic Jack the Ripper once did in London. Eventually this brutal sadist voluntarily gave himself up to the police.

A young ambitious lawyer Justus Wehner is assigned to defend the killer. Wehner is certain that Kuerten suffers from a severe mental disorder and decides to prove Peter Kuerten is insane. Wehner starts to study the killer´s mind, but the further he sinks into Kuerten‘s motivation and psyche, he gains less control over the case. Wehner also meets Kurten‘s wife Marie, a lady with a dark past, who´s role in the case is more than mysterious. Kuerten and Marie start to exploit Wehner‘s mind and soul.

Evil tendencies and despair slowly start to overcome Wehner. He burns the bridges of his old life, almost kills one of his witnesses and finally forces Marie into suicide. In the conclusion of the trial, Kuerten is declared “Normal”. Wehner looses the case as well as his innocence, beliefs and carrier. Peter Kurten is now to become the new Messiah. He will be a messiah of terror who will lead the people into a new age of fascism where insanity will become normal for everyone.

Genre: Crime, Drama & Thriller

************************************A Second Chance

Denmark

Director: Susanne Bier

Cast: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Ulrich Thomsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas

SYNOPSIS

Detectives and best friends Andreas and Simon are leading vastly different lives. Andreas has settled down with his wife and son while Simon, recently divorced, spends most of his waking hours getting drunk. But all that changes when the two of them are called out to a domestic dispute between a junkie couple. It all looks very routine – until Andreas finds the couple’s infant son, crying in a closet. The usually collected policeman is shaken to his core. As Andreas slowly loses his grip on justice, it suddenly becomes up to the unruly Simon to restore the balance between right and wrong.

Summertime is a warm-hearted, touching and funny movie about growing up, friendship and, despite all the hardships, "the best summer ever".

25-year-old Iiris and Karoliina are best of friends. Iiris has been travelling and doing odd jobs abroad for some years now, but is coming back home for the summer as Karoliina has gotten them jobs as waitresses in Hanko, the best summer city in Finland. The plan is to spend one more care-free summer together enjoying life. When the girls make friends with their slightly odd workmate Eeva and move into her aunt’s villa, the makings of a perfect summer seem to be in order.

But there are clouds over total freedom and ease. Iiris has crisis in growing up, Karoliina is tempted to do something that is morally suspicious and Eeva is once again struggling to get into university.

As the summer goes on, all three girls have to accept hard facts about themselves and their lives - and admitting these to the others is not easy. Luckily the summer is hot, the girls are not quite thirty yet and friends stand by each other all the way to the end.

Genre: Drama-comedy

************************************

A 14 ans (Being 14)

France

Director: Hélène Zimmer

Cast/Actors: Najaa Bensaid, Athalia Routier, Galatéa Bellugi,

SYNOPSIS

The new school year has begun. Sarah, Jade and Louise are back together for their final year in high school. Between euphoria, rivalties, rebellion and seductions, they deal with the torments of adolescence in order to find their place.

************************************

Pater

France

Director: Alain Cavalier

Cast/Actors: Vincent Lindon, Alain Cavalier, Bernard Bureau

SYNOPSIS

During a year, they would meet and film each other. The filmmaker and the actor, the President and his Prime Minister, Alain Cavalier and Vincent London.

In Pater, you will see them in real life and in the fiction that they invited together.

The aristocratic sisters Charlotte and Caroline both fall in love with the controversial young writer and hothead Friedrich Schiller. Defying the conventions of their time, the sisters decide to share their love with Schiller. What begins playfully, almost as a game among the three of them, soon turns serious as it leads to the end of a pact...

BELOVED SISTERS received the Best Cinematography Award at this year's Bavarian Film Awards and will represent Germany as the official submission for the 87th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film

SYNOPSIS (long)

Germany in the late 18th century. Two beautiful, aristocratic sisters meet a young man who is infatuated by both of them: by Caroline, bold, exuberant, unhappily married; and Charlotte, shy, rational, intense. The young man is none other than the writer, playwright, philosopher and hothead Friedrich Schiller, whose career has just begun. Both sisters long for love, but only one, Charlotte, is free. Neither noble nor wealthy, Schiller is no match for Charlotte, whose mother wants her to make a “good” marriage. Yet in the wake of the social and political upheavals rocking France on the eve of the Revolution, new forms of cohabitation emerge. One of them is the ménage à trois – which is what Caroline urges them to try. Schiller is to marry Charlotte, but they will never be far from Caroline. Tension mounts between the sisters, however, who have always loved each other dearly and shared all their secrets and desires. Though Schiller delicately tends to the needs and wishes of his two mistresses, the sisters’ own pact seems increasingly like an elusive dream...

In this aesthetic tour-de-force, one of Germany’s foremost “auteurs,” Dominik Graf (“Dreileben”, “A Map of the Heart”), examines a passionate love triangle that may have been one of Schiller’s most closely guarded secrets. The actors Hannah Herzsprung (“Four Minutes”), Henriette Confurius and Florian Stetter (“Sophie Scholl”) demonstrate the full range of their artistry, and, through their eloquence and expressiveness, raise this gorgeously shot film to the level of a timeless study of love.

Director’s biography:

Dominik Graf, born in 1952, is the son of actor Robert Graf. He began studying German Philology and Musicology at the University of Munich in 1972. In 1974, he switched to the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München (HFF Munich). His graduation film DER KOSTBARE GAST (1979) received a Bavarian Film Award. Graf works extensively in television, directs episodes for German prime-time series and has established himself as a specialist for thrillers and action films. Some of his films are also shown in cinemas. He received a German Film Award as Best Director for the thriller THE CAT. Afterwards, Graf mainly worked in television. There he continually switched between quite controversial genre works, such as SPERLING UND DER BRENNENDE ARM, melodramas like BITTERE UNSCHULD and poetic works such as FRIENDS OF FRIENDS. Graf’s television series IN FACE OF THE CRIME, about the Berlin Russian Mafia, gained widespread attention. The series received a number of awards, including a German Television Award for Best Miniseries, the Grimme Award in the Fiction category and the Best Director Award at the 2011 Bavarian TV Awards. Dominik Graf’s first feature film in eight years, BELOVED SISTERS, premiered at the 2014 Berlinale. Since 2004, he has held the post of Professor of Feature Film Directing at the ifs internationale filmschule köln.

Erik has his own motorbike workshop in a sleepy little town. He may have the telling word ‘scoundrel’ tattooed onto his lower arm but he nonetheless creates an impression of a well-behaved average Joe. His relationship with his girlfriend Julia is going well and her daughter Linda is very fond of her new Dad. But then all of a sudden the mysterious Henry appears and begins following him about like a sinister shadow. The more Erik tries to shake off his diabolical guest the more Henry intrudes into his life. But then when a violent gangster named Keitel enters the fray and threatens not only Erik but Julia and Linda, Erik’s seemingly ideal world begins to run off the rails.

After his prize-winning debut "Schwerkraft", director Maximilian Erlenwein serves up a mystery-cum-thriller that is as absorbing as it is philosophical. When a repressed, hidden past rears its ugly head, the characters find themselves confronted with fundamental conflicts. The leading roles are played by Jürgen Vogel and Moritz Bleibtreu, both of whom make excellent use of their full-on physicality, ensuring a sensual but far from bloodless adventure.

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Anyám és más futóbolondok a családból(MOM AND OTHER LOONIES IN THE FAMILY)

The screenplay is the story of an odd family during the 20th century. Four generations of “crazies” led by the character of Mum who lived 94 years and moved 27 times in her life. Moving was her only way ofconfronting troubles, dangers and conflicts. In reality, it was History that chased her throughout the country and made her go through a terrible century. At the incredible age of 94, Mum tells the story of these events to her daughter, nearly 100 years of often mischievous and heart-warming but also sometimes painful episodes.

Leonardo Rossellini is a young Italian priest from Rome. He is assigned to a parish in Payatas, headed by a courageous Spanish priest. Payatas is one of the poorest areas of Metromanila, Philippines, where all the urban wastes of the metropolis are dumped and processed: a place where every day children are exposed to violence and dangerous diseases. Leonardo's mission is to counsel battered women and teach poor children English and catechism. But soon Leonardo's peace of mind is distraught by the encounter of Merlinda, a young and charming woman he used to love when he was still a seminarian. Merlinda is now married to Franco, and has a 6 year old son. But Franco is a violent husband also involved in illegal activities, and her son Alejandro is now missing. Merlinda asks for Leonardo's help. The latter decides to do his best to solve her problems. The reason? Leonardo still has feelings for Merlinda. But Franco doesn't like the Italian priest to mess with his family's life and Carlos, the Spanish head priest is worried about it: he knows how dangerous Franco is. But Leonardo is even more determined when Merlinda reveals to him that Alejandro is not Franco's son: he is their son. Leonardo becomes an 'action priest': he protects Merlinda from Franco's violence and is able to find and rescue his son, who was in the hand of a syndicate of which Franco is a member. But now Franco plans to kill the Italian priest.

Like in many other Monicelli movies, the main theme of Amici miei is friendship, seen from a rather bitter point of view. It tells the story of four middle-aged friends in Florence who organize together idle pranks (called zingarate, "gypsy shenanigans") in a continuous attempt to prolong childhood during their adult life.

For four disillusioned men there is more at stake than merely finishing the Rotterdam marathon.

Gerard, Leo, Kees and Nico are four best friends who work together in Gerard's garage. But the business isn't going all that well, so the four friends come up with the brilliant idea of finding a sponsor who will pay them to run the Rotterdam marathon. In this way they can save the garage from bankruptcy. For the four friends however, there is a lot more at stake…

The Liverpool Goalie is a warm comedy, in which both girls and boys play football, worship their idols, and are frustrated by complicated friendships, young love, anxious mothers and overambitious football coaches. At the heart of the events, we find twelve-year-old Jo. Jo tries to avoid both potential girfriends, mothers and football coaches, as he is hunting desperately for a rare football card which he believes will solve all his problems. Jo has a smart head, but a weak body. Even so, he gets by relatively well - until Mari throws him a glance, and he acquires the title "The Liverpool Goalie".

IN 1947, the world is gripped with excitement as the young Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl embarks on an astonishing expedition - a journey of 4,300 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean on the Kon-Tiki raft. From his days living in the Marquesas with his wife Liv, Thor suspected that the South Sea Islands had been settled by ancient South Americans from thousands of miles to the east. Despite his inability to swim and fear of water, Thor decides to prove his theory by sailing the legendary voyage himself.

After replicating the design of an ancient raft in balsa wood, Thor and five fellow adventurers set sail from Peru. Their only modern equipment is a radio, and they take a parrot along for company. A natural leader, Thor uses the stars and the oceans current to navigate the raft. After three dangerous months on the open sea, encountering raging storms, sharks, and all the dangers the ocean can muster, the exhausted crew sights Polynesia and makes a triumphant landing.

Having sacrificed everything for his mission, even his marriage, the success of the Kon-Tiki expedition proves to be bittersweet for Thor.

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Carte Blanche

Poland

Director: Jacek Lusiński

SYNOPSIS

Inspired by an incredible true story "Carte Blanche" is ailmeel-good movie about a high school history teacher who – fearing he might lose his job and dignity - decides to hide the fact that he’s losing his sight.

Kacper, a beloved history teacher, begins to lose his sight. The medical diagnosis leaves little hope; due to a genetic disorder, chances are high that he’s facing permanent blindness. Initially heartbroken, he attempts to hide his health problems from his bosses. His only desire is to keep his dream job and to help his students prepare to the final exams. The only person knowing about Kacper's problem is his best friend Wiktor. Fighting his dreary fate, Kacper becomes very close with his co-worker Ewa, and at the same time he tries to help a rebel student Klara, who hides a secret of her own.

What makes this story so universal and appealing is that it’s not merely about this particular’s man struggle with a disease. It’s about every man whose world begins to fall apart and who is faced with a choice to make: to fight or to give in and remain defeated. How much strength does one need to come from their knees and keep on going? Are we capable of writing our life over again, from scratch?

Instead of staying home and learn for the final exam, three fresh high-school graduates decide to go to the seaside and complete their teenage in a rebellious style! Yasmine, Roxi and Ana are determined to have fun and forget about the responsibilities in the past 2 days before the maturity exam, and that means to break any rule and do whatever they want to do, without considering the consequences. They want freedom, adrenaline and one summer love, and the three young men whom they cling at the seaside seem more than willing to offer them whatever they can imagine.

Genre: Comedy

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Bucuresti NonStop

Romania

Director: Dan Chisu

Cast: Gheorghe Ifrim, Ion Besoiu, Dorina Lazar

SYNOPSIS

Bucharest NonStop presents a regular night of a 24/7 neighbourhood store. Achim, the owner of the store, represents the connection between four stories of ordinary people caught in extraordinary situations. No matter how different they are, the taxi driver and the hooker, the elderly couple, the lovers and the neighbourhood con men have one thing in common: Achim’s nonstop store.

Genre: Drama

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Miguel y William

Spain

Director: Inés París

Cast: Elena Anaya, Juan Luis Galiardo, Will Kemp

SYNOPSIS

Leonor de Vibero, the daughter of a commercial agent living in England and a keen theatergoer has to leave London and return to Castile to marry a rich, widowed duke. Leonor leaves an inconsolable lover, William Shakespeare, in London. He is a promising playwright who enjoys the pleasures of the flesh as much as the applause of the public. When she is in Spain, Leonor meets Miguel de Cervantes, a former soldier and man of letters who has lost confidence in himself and faith in his talent. Shakespeare arrives in Spain to prevent the marriage between his beloved and the duke and so Leonor sees the chance to bring together the talents of the two writers to obtain a unique work.

Genre: Comedy, Drama

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Unga Sophie Bell (Young Sophie Bell)

Sweden

Director: Amanda Adolfsson

Cast: Felice Jankell, Hedda Stiernstedt, Iggy Malmborg

SYNOPSIS

After high school graduation, life is finally going to begin for real. At least that’s how best friends Sophie and Alice feel about the upcoming move to Berlin. But their plans are crushed when Alice disappears in Berlin under unclear conditions. Sophie ends up on a life-changing journey that will bring her a taste of the exuberant parts of life.

The true story of the relationship between renowned writer Alan Bennett and the singular Miss Shepherd, a woman of uncertain origins who ‘temporarily’ parked her van in Bennett’s London driveway and proceeded to live there for 15 years.